Cotswold District Council hosts session on the potential for farming to reverse climate and ecology crises
Regenerative farmer, Dr Richard Gantlett, told Cotswold District councillors, officers and regional farming leaders from across Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds National Landscape that agriculture has remarkable potential to meet climate, ecology, and economic needs.
During a virtual briefing session hosted recently, Dr Gantlett – who himself farms just over 670 hectares of land at Yatesbury House Farm near Avebury in Wiltshire – explained the potential for farming to be a leading agent of rapid and sustainable positive climate and biodiversity outcomes.
Cllr Angus Jenkinson, Councillor for Regenerative Agricultures and Ecology, who organised the session, said: "I am truly grateful to Richard Gantlett for sharing his deep expertise and knowledge of farming and agricultural practice. He demonstrated how farming can be a champion for carbon capture and nature regeneration, while feeding us and the world profitably. The scientific data demonstrates sizeable net carbon capture associated with rich ecological benefits meeting both of our Council's declared crises.
“What a turnaround for our lovely Cotswold region and British rural landscapes."
Dr Gantlett uses Biodynamic agrtechniques in his regenerative farming. This is a century-old form of organic, sustainable agriculture focussing on enhanced soil health, biodiversity, and resilience.
Citing various scientific sources and research, Dr Gantlett set out how ecologically-intensive methods of farming - such as biodynamic – have the potential to achieve better than net-zero climate outcomes while regenerating biodiversity and protecting rivers while growing food profitably.
You can view the full session by clicking here.
Contact Information
Cotswold District Council Communications Team
Notes to editors
During the session, Dr Gantlett referred to a number of scientific papers and research sources. These are listed below:
- Gantlett, et al. (2024). Modern arable and diverse ley farming systems can increase soil organic matter faster than global targets. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 39, 0. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1742170524000103
- Blanco-Canqui, H. and Lal, R. (2008), No-Tillage and Soil-Profile Carbon Sequestration: An On-Farm Assessment. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 72: 693-701. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2007.0233
- Neal, A. L., Bacq-Labreuil, A., Zhang, X., Clark, I. M., Coleman, K., Mooney, S. J., ... & Crawford, J. W. (2020). Soil as an extended composite phenotype of the microbial metagenome. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 10649.
- Ruddiman (2005) estimated the depletion of the terrestrial C stock (soil and vegetation) by 456 Pg (502.65 × 109 tn) since the onset of agriculture. Of this, the historic depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock is estimated at 130 to 135 Pg (143.3×109 to148.8×109 tn) (Sanderman et al. 2017; Lal 2018).
- An agroecological Europe in 2050 (Poux 2018)
- Animals need to eat pasture not soya or cereals factory farmed pigs factory farmed pigs, cows and chickens
- In climate extremes organic systems have been shown to out yield intensive input-based systems (Lotter et al. 2003).
- Small farms can have higher yields and higher biodiversity (Ricciardi, Mehrabi et al. 2021)
- Plant species diversity declined strongly with reductions in soil biodiversity and simplification of the soil communities in pasture (Wagg 2014)
- Niche differential effect — each species can occupy a different niche avoiding competition (Tilman 1999).
- Highly diverse leys root twice as deep as expected from their monoculture traits, giving access to greater soil resource which can correlate with aboveground productivity (Mueller et al. 2013).
- Diverse mixtures provide a sampling effect — the best mixture is always available for any given location/soil/time (Tilman 1999).